Today's notes:

Context:

Key Concepts:

What is God's righteousness observed doing?:

Withholding mighty works because of unbelief except for a few.

What does this tell us about God's righteousness?:

There is nothing that says that God has to heal, HE does it when it is right. Something about the reaction of these people to Jesus is making this opportunity not right. It was not only the unbelief commonly experienced wherever Jesus went, but of a measure or type that Jesus Himself marveled at (see: kjv@Luke:4:16-30).

There is nothing to say that God is HIMSELF limited performing mighty works by our belief. This is a conscious decision on HIS part to make HIS righteousness known with a curious silence of works rather than forcing it upon them at least for this time.

Healing and miracles themselves are not righteousness. They are vehicles on the road to confirming Jesus as Son of God which is righteousness. The statement can just as effectively be made by not confirming suddenly/noticeably in the vacuum of what typically happens every other place that Jesus is sent.

How is man reacting?:

They are offended by the claims of Jesus.

Notes:

This type of reaction among those most acquainted is not particular to Jesus, it has been historically documented in the prophets of Israel/Judah. This may be the type of reaction that His brethren were reacting to when they went to Him wanting to have a word with Him to come back home.

We do not believe this James to the current disciple of Jesus being told that not even His own brethren at that time believed kjv@John:7:5. There is a somewhat confusing trail of several named James just as there are Simon and Marys. This may however be the James that eventually becomes a coequal to Peter within the early church of Jerusalem.

What does a Jesus do when He is not performing mighty works? He is teaching.

Jesus not only had the power given to do such mighty works, He also had the power given to allow His disciples the experience of performing such as well. Surely a pair or two of His disciples had entered into this region performing the same works in His name. They were told to kick the dust off their shoes had they encountered such inhospitable unbelief.

Key Messages:

What does this say about our present condition?

Some would say that Jesus can do nothing miraculous except that person believe. There are a great many beliefs that take that to mean that Jesus need not even be in the equation as long as they believe. That would suggest then that Jesus is maliciously taking powers that are common to all of us and confiscating them to be His own. Else, Jesus is showing us of a power He has discovered that any believer in the power can use just like Him. This is never claimed by Jesus, He always claimed that He was sent of the Father to do the Father's will and in return for doing such there would be mighty and uncommon confirmations from the Father that Jesus is indeed HIS only begotten Son, the Anointed One.